Modern marketing of refrigerated items is highly dependent on sales from refrigerated merchandising units at the point of sale. Particularly with refrigerated items, it is important to be able to inspect the quality of an item you are considering purchasing, and whether or not the merchandising unit contains items that you are interested in. The environment in which the merchandiser is used will affect the attributes of a given refrigerated merchandiser. For example, a steel-doored, coin-operated merchandiser may be used outdoors, whereas a glass-doored, readily openable merchandiser may be used within a business. However, a refrigerated merchandiser has certain basic attributes; it must contain sufficient space to contain a useful number of a particular type of merchandise, it must contain a cooling unit to cool the space within the merchandiser, and it must contain some form of access to the contents within the merchandiser. In addition, refrigerated merchandising units are generally provided with a shroud at the top of the merchandiser, above the cooling unit, that serves a “billboard” function and discourages the stacking of other items that may block the efficient dispersal of heat from the unit.
Shrouds for refrigerated merchandiser units have traditionally been fixed, pre-assembled units. These traditional refrigerated merchandiser shrouds consist of four pieces: two end panels, one front panel, and one back panel. These pre-assembled refrigerated merchandiser shrouds are configured to fit around the top perimeter of a refrigerated merchandiser. The end panels are fastened to the front and back panels using two fasteners that may be, for example, hex washer head self-drilling screws (TEK screws). Assemblies over five feet in length generally also require two gusset angles to be fastened to the shroud to secure it to the refrigerated merchandiser.
As refrigerated merchandiser shrouds are fitted to the top of refrigerators and do not generally bear weight during usage, they are typically made of lightweight materials with little structural integrity. Unfortunately, problems often occur during the shipping and handling of these units. Refrigerated merchandiser shrouds are generally subject to various types of stress during shipping that may cause damage. In particular, freight handlers may mistakenly assume the refrigerated merchandiser shrouds are sturdy enough to support weight, leading to damage of the shrouds when freight handlers stack other freight items on top of the shrouds. While printing “DO NOT TOP LOAD” or similar phrases on the packaging helps to avoid this, handlers may not see or may choose to ignore the warning label.
Traditional, pre-assembled refrigerated merchandiser shrouds also raise concerns during usage, as ice company associates frequently handle refrigerated merchandisers by grabbing the top of the refrigerated merchandiser shroud and tipping the merchandiser onto a two-wheel hand truck for movement to a selling location. This causes two problems; it may damage the refrigerated merchandiser shroud, and it may create a safety hazard to the associate if the refrigerated merchandiser shroud tears or fails to support the refrigerated merchandiser during handling.